AFP. 23 January 2002. Former British hostage Waite "appalled" by treatment of Cuba prisoners.
LONDON -- Terry Waite, the Briton held captive by terrorists in Beirut for five years, told a British newspaper Wednesday he was "appalled" at the treatment of al-Qaeda suspects being held by the United States in Cuba. "I can recognise the conditions that prisoners are being kept in at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay because I have been there," Waite, a special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of his capture, told the Guardian. He added: "Because I was kept in very similar conditions, I am appalled at the way we, countries that call ourselves civilised, are treating these captives. Is this justice or revenge?" International criticism of conditions at the makeshift prison camp in Cuba have grown since the first batch of 158 detainees now held in Guantanamo were transferred from Afghanistan earlier this month. Photographs at the weekend showed a group of kneeling, handcuffed prisoners wearing dark goggles, earmuffs, mittens and bright orange jumpsuits. The prisoners, including three Britons, are being held at the temporary outdoor detention facility called "Camp X-Ray", where each has a separate cell with a concrete floor, wooden roof and chain-link walls. Waite was kept in solitary confinement for four years between 1987 and 1991 during his five years in captivity. He told the Guardian that he was blindfolded, chained to a wall and beaten on the soles of his feet with cable. "I am not soft on terrorism -- I have had too many dealings with it to be so -- but I am passionate that we must observe standards of justice," he said. "I fear that unless firm action is taken to institute just and fair procedures, the long-term results for the US will be catastrophic." He added: "It alarms me greatly that the prisoners' status seems to have been determined almost exclusively by the US president and his advisers. Their status should be determined by an independent tribunal. The US seems to be making up the rules as it goes along." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
